LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Shelf. -Gb-.g^ 5 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



SONGS OF THE SPIRIT. 



BY ISAAC R. BAXLEY. 

The Temple of Alanthur, with Other Poems. 
New edition. i2mo, cloth, gilt top, 140 pages. 

Price, |i.oo. 
The Prophet, and Other Poems. 

New edition. i2nio, cloth, gilt top, 78 pages. 

Price, li.oo. 
CHARLES WELLS MOULTON, 
Buffalo, N. Y. 



Songs of the Spirit 



BY 



ISAAC R. BAXLEY 

Author of "The Temple of Alanthur," 
"The Prophet," Etc. 





BUFFALO 

CHARLES WELLS MOULTON 

1891 



\^\-. ^ 



s\ 






Copyright, 

1890, 

By Isaac R. Baxley. 



PRINTED by 
C. W. MOULTON, 
BUFFALO, N. Y. 



CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

I. Out of the numberless, mystical things . . 9 
II. Not only in cavernous homes of the sea . 14 

III. Fly out, on noiseless wings, and be ... 17 

IV. For the glories of Heaven impatiently . . 22 
V. Outward is darkness, and dismay .... 25 

VI. Unloosed from the silence of Earth, and 

anear 28 

VII. Into another world I saw 31 

VIII. In unexpected mysteries 38 

IX. There was something — a substance — an 

evident thing 42 

X. I saw peculiar excellence 46 

XI. Wrapped in a veil of darkness and dis- 
tressed 49 

Paradise : Part First 53 

Paradise : Part Second 77 

Song of the Spirit 88 



SONGS OF THE SPIRIT. 



/. 



/~\UT of the numberless, mystical things 

Is one who stands in the steps of Time, 
Await till the Spirit shall gather the strings 

Together that give him peace and rhyme: 
To sound and to echo his Soul is set. 

And his eyes are dim; unheeded there 
Would float in the glory that suns beget 

The sweetest Spirit that winged the air. 



10 Songs of the Spirit. 



But the torture grows and the Spirit never 

Sends from the strings nor its lips a sound, 
And the listening Soul, with a fierce endeavor, 

Buries its heart to a depth profound: 
" If I blot from myself all life and be 

But a terrible question of this — this thing. 
The Spirit must waken to answer me — 

And strike for my ears on the tightened string. ' 



But the Spirit is far in its Isles of Peace, 

Sitting in sapphire, with pearl aglow, 
And never and never its lips increase 

To sound, nor the strings revive and flow: 
In peace — in peace: sweet, perfect, still. 

Unshaken, changeless, calm, enclosed. 
Sure never possessor of such things will 

Be from its shadowless sleep deposed. 



So7igs of the Spirit. 



But up from the glory of sight and sea, 

The beauty, the hght, and the silent store 
Of a terribly perfect ecstacy 

Its being expandeth out and o'er: 
Light! light! and ever the glow of light! 

With purple, wonderful tints, and hue 
Of something else than the actual sight, 

And something never a mortal knew. 



For though he listened, and his eyes refused 

To open for ever a thing divine, 
The glory was freed as a thing unloosed 

To penetrate essence, and Soul, and shine 
Full through and through; and never a cast 

Of his constant lids on useless eyes 
Could hinder th' angelic beams that passed 

His body's sullen and weak disguise. 



Songs of the Spirit. 



Within him — out — till he seemed to be 

Transparent in a flame, and thing 
That filled the earth, and filled the sea, 

And grew and ever was brightening: 
He seemed to see himself a shell, 

A husk, a something that contained 
The life of Spirits, of those who well 

Speak out and be with their lips restrained. 



For he knew the Light, and its name, and its face, 

And he sat as one convicted — known; 
But speech was vision, and silence grace 

Of expression past all but the Spirit's own: 
And his lips and his eyes were needless: he 

Forgot in his Soul all sound and rhyme. 
For the life of the Spirit he saw to be 

Exhaled — as Eternity breathes on Time. 



Songs of the Spirit. 13 



He rose: for the Spirit faded — passed; 

Quivered and severed its light aside : 
Things shrank into sight; all the distance vast 

Of a Heaven was now but the wonder-eyed 
Remembrance of glor>', that must be still 

Engulfed far out in the Isles of Peace, 
W^hence it would return if he had will, 

And his Soul had faith, and his eyes increase. 



// 



M OT only in cavernous homes of the sea 

Are the quenchless stores of things divine, 
Nor does only the willing stars' heraldry 
With the light of their wonderful birth-right 
shine; 
For there are in the heart such things as come 

Not over the sea, nor out of the night. 
And the unknown speech of the Soul is a tongue 
They may listen and wait for in fear and delight. 



Songs of the Spirit. i5 



It may be there lieth in the lips of a Soul 

Some exquisite blessing of peace unto them, 
Which springs where the ideal spaces roll 

That their luminous pathways may not stem; 
For the Spirit is perfect, and they enclosed 

In the hidden life of a thing aside. 
May gather some joy from a Soul transposed 

In the mystical sight of the glorified. 



May the Spirit from out of itself and its Life 

Ever pour on the bosom of earth and of sea 
Such beauty; a hope of the vanished strife 

Of the Soul and themselves in Eternity ? 
Shall it give from its viewless self impress 

Of the shining things no star may see, 
And sail far out in a sweet excess 

To return with the freight of its sanctity ? 



1 6 Songs of the Spirit. 



O! is there still ever in the smiles of earth 

One sweeter than any, and flashing bright, 
Await for the Souls whose holy birth 

Is where the numberless lamps of night 
Needless shine ? And do they in patience await 

With all their glory outspread to be 
As servitors unto the radiant state 

Of beatitude bearing mortality ? 



Ah! is there remaining in cloud and in sky 

The look of the measureless eyes that passed 
All the heavenly courses quietly 

Till they found the rest for themselves at last ? 
Is there somewhere set in the things which bear 

The tranquil steps of a Spirit's pace 
Its messages, left in the shining air, 

And over the sea the light of its face ? 



III. 

pLY out, on noiseless wings, and be 

My Spirit, something of delight. 
There's not in all Earth's boundary 

A footing to sustain thy flight: 
Thou hast no name, nor ever yet 

Most passionate of any cry 
Could loose the seal of silence set 

On things that in thine essence lie. 



i8 Songs of the Spirit. 



O part, part from thy paths and be 

Thrilled with intensified relief, 
Cleft from th' acknowledged misery 

Of an unspoken speech and belief: 
O part; stand out a word — a claim 

Expressing only what it is, 
Impossible for thee a name 

With faintest syllable amiss. 



Wearied with hope of far beauty 

Which cannot still thyself proclaim, 
O pass, and burst on ecstacy 

Of being, seeming, known the same: 
O gather, gather to excess 

Thy shining heritage of life, 
Its fullness shall thy cr>^ redress 

And draw thee, vanished, from the strife. 



Songs of the Spirit. 19 



Not only thou, within thy sense, 

Pure, infinitely fine as thou, 
Waveth a flame and light, intense, 

A fervid, penetrable glow: 
Of this within, and round thee. Soul, 

That wide, transparent, endless haze, 
What wonder that betimes unroll 

The hills — translucent in thy gaze. 



When thou, O Spirit, hast attained 

Remission from thy fainter birth, 
And when thy weary lips have gained 

Succor from all the words of Earth, 
Then into thine shall glide and grow 

This trembling, inner flame, which is 
Apparent here because below 

Are not the heavenly mysteries. 



So?igs of the Spirit. 



It quivered as thyself didst play 

And bum out towards The Infinite, 
Thy pathway was a wondrous ray, 

But this intensified delight: 
Thou canst not name thyself, and flee 

Outward for peace, with purpose fair, 
But sweet is still mortality 

If this blooms in its blessed air! 



What is this secret in thine own — 

How keepeth thine the inner flame ? 
O Spirit, ask how thou hast grown, 

Wherein thy stature, aspect, came: 
Thou art so singularly poor 

To speak, with fountains ever full — 
This flame in thine but little more 

Is mystified or wonderful. 



Songs of the Spirit. 



But pass, O Spirit, if forbid 

To call and cry thyself and thine; 
No more, to thee, is distant hid 

The sequence beautiful, benign: 
It must, it must break out and be 

Some transcript of the things that there 
Seem so transparent unto thee. 

There is some tongue for mortal air! 



IV. 



UOR the glories of Heaven impatiently 

Pass over the sensitive sea, and things 
Of the Earth are aglow to triumphantly 

Break out into bloom by the beautiful springs: 
O I see the immortal colors, and wide 

Are opened the beautiful bounds that there 
Spread out for the Spirit, descending aside 

Roll the confines that cloud their extent in the air. 



Songs of the Spirit. 23 



The hills that are purple grow golden, and rise 

Upspreading and stretched till their figures become 
Prolonged in my sight to an infinite size, 

And the blue sky flies out fi"om its high-tinted 
dome: 
For I see in my Soul as there never a sun 

Rose up in the Earth to enlighten me. 
There is not a darkness nor shadow, each one 

Of the hills is aflame — glowing splendidly. 



Out over the valleys and plains of the place 

Run majestic waters; the rivers are free 
To lengthen their courses on, on into space 

Of their wonderful measures set endlessly: 
Ever the perfectest pleasure and peace are displayed 

By the Spirits and Beings who flee out in the ways, 
Where the light of this beautiful land is portrayed 

In a manner unused to my astonished gaze. 



24 Songs of the Spirit. 



For its colors and hues to the tenderest eyes 

Are ever more gentle, and ever anew 
From the unsullied sources of beauty arise 

Most exquisite glories that radiate through 
The waters responsive and hills, that are free 

As a mystical portion of the Life that is 
Encompassed by every serenity — 

Sharing with the Spirits in their harmonies. 



And never again is deserted and lost 

From the answering Earth its remembrance and 
sight 
To the eyes of my Soul, that have opened and crossed 

All the distance of darkness and faced upon light: 
There is ever and ever such vision, and vast 

Uprises the Spirit of Earth to the high 
Enclosure of beauty, that descended and passed 

By the sight of the Soul to inhabit the eye. 



V. 



/^UTWARD is darkness, and dismay 

Sinks terribly on distant Time; 
As open-eyed we gaze away 

We fade and perish: lo, sublime 
And beautiful appears the Soul, 

Standing forever with its eyes 
Immersed in visions from the goal 

That gives, and draws us, Spirit-wise. 



26 Songs of the Spirit. 



Within is set thy Spirit, so 

The mighty plains within thee turn, 
Therein the Earth shall sightless go, 

Thou shalt not hitherward discern 
But in thyself 's forgetfulness, — 

Out of thy casemate forth and far 
Into the lands of loveliness 

Straying, where Souls already are. 



A wish — a cry — a glance upwhirled — 

Thy Spirit's loosening — away 
Fliest thou victor through a world 

Abruptly vanquished in thy sway: 
That infinite and fearful sea 

Of substance for the Spirit's need 
Is bound in thine uncertainty — 

Fly forth — what clouds thy wings impede ? 



Songs of the Spirit 27 



To every wind of Earth a wing 

Is feathered, and for every sea 
A flight is measured; wilt thou fling 

Abroad on that Eternity 
Pinions to bear thee, and abide 

Where custom perisheth, and be 
All that thou hast been, and beside 

Spirit released exultingly ? 



O turn — turn to the inward sea, 

Pass to th' embosomed hills that glow 
Glorious in thy mortality — 

But not where human foot-falls go: 
Thine is the vision — fearful gaze — 

Can stretch, and conquer, and enclose 
The land outspread in sweet displays — 

But not in earth thy roadway goes. 



VI. 



I TNLOOSED from the silence of Earth, and anear 

To the wonderful home of the Spirit, in sight 
Of its exquisite safety, its peace, and the clear 

Astonishing day of its life and its light, 
The doubt and the darkness descend and decline, 

And the lips of the Spirit are opened, and flow 
Out into a transport, rising upward the fine 

Exultations of happiness mingle and go. 



Songs of the Spirit 29 



In an ecstatic bravery- the passionate eyes 

Of the Soul extend far from foundations of Time 
Into eternal sources, where upgather and rise 

The outlines that angelic habitants climb; 
And the beautiful visions portrayed overpour 

All the obstinate silence of Earth, and declare 
The ancient outbursts of the Spirit, but more 

Shines the wonderful light that the Spirit shall 
wear. 

And the Soul, with its eyes forever steadfast 

To the radiant changes that constantly come. 
Passes with its new feet on the Earth, till at last, 

In all the outgoings, one highway alone 
Is stretched out in its passage, where there hinder 
the way 

No barriers, all the gateways have faded and grown 
Into transparent beacons glowing out in array — 

And the flash of their ending is the light of their own. 



30 Songs of the Spirit. 



And the lips of the Spirits that traverse with flight 

Of their hastening feet on this highway, and go 
Fixed with their bright eyes on the increasing hght 

Of their guiding, what speech hath the Earth to 
bestow 
To their using — O what is the passion of song 

Themselves to deliver ? What fearful display 
Can they grasp from the glorious sights that belong 

To the Soul — and into humanity say ? 



O the speech of the Spirit is ever anew 

In its choosing, and ever and ever the same 
Is the Spirit, in sound it is hidden, but through, 

Forever, all speech shines its terrible flame: 
Forever the light, in its tempest upspringing. 

Burns the darkness that buries the terrible years, 
Incessantly waken the sounds of its singing, 

Await for the echo in hearkening ears. 



VII. 

T NTO another world I saw 

And this fell from me, for I rose 
Embodied, not the less that law 

Of ancientness was past and closed: 
The sanctioned uses, breath and blood, 
The form, the visage, and the mood 
Attainable to touch, that could 
Be verified, and bear expense 
Of naming, these were passed, and thence 
Upstarting in an altered air 
I lived, though these were never there. 



32 Songs of tJie Spirit. 



In memory deep, dare I betray 
The settled secrets of my stay?. 
Dare I, a solitar>^ tongue, 
Stand out the cadences among 
And claim: — There is a symphony 
Thou hast not sung, that anciently 
Arose and fell, and undisturbed 
Lies whispering still, one deathless word 
Dare I proclaim the sound I heard ? 



My Soul is listening and it says: — 

Speak out, the world is vacant, soon 
The tempests of its tortured ways 

Shall lift a long uncovered boon 
And bear it far and far; around 

Swiftly its circuit, till arise 
New speech and knowledge for the sound 

That is unnamed in all her cries. 



Songs of the Spirit. 33 



And I — I falter: but my Soul 

Bursts thitherward again, and I 
Grow courage as the glories roll 

In actual, happy panoply: 
And I descend, and ask in fear 

My Spirit how the visions came, 
And it responds: — Didst thou not hear 

Within thyself one common name ? 



Go call that name; but not as those 

Have known it hitherward, but say: — 
Of all the melancholy woes 

Are suffered, none but this sound may 
Dissever, if thou gird'st it fast 

Thy Spirit, and thy Spirit goes 
Parcelled, apportioned, reckoned, cast 

Out where the farthest current flows. 



34 Songs of the Spirit. 



So I — I am my Spirit's best; 

I draw the veil hung in my heart, 
And thou — thou witnesseth impressed 

The sight of which this sound is part: 
Thou seest, closeted within, 

A substance of appearance high 
And singular, which is the kin 

To me, as only kin this cry 
Is unto that sweet, soundless name 

First lightened in obedient eyes. 
When what were words were simply flame, 

Which flew as silent brightness flies. 



Sad, undiscovered, sits a thing. 
Endlessly patient in the heart, 

A nameless, constant, chaste being, 
Thyself — but more than still thou art; 



Songs of the Spirit. 35 



For it has wastage, and the pain 
Of wanting, and thy heavy Soul 

Speaks of its griefs in wild refrain — 
But thou deem'st otherwise the dole. 



For surely other than to thee 

Is wanting, wastage and dismay; 
By night thou goest, and daily 

Discoverest not this sad decay; 
O fevered, dying, desolate, 

Decrepidly it sits, and wears 
Th' immortal anguish of its fate, 

And sees nm out th' immortal tears. 



If thou could'st know, could'st only guess 
Th' unknown prisoner in thyself, 



36 Songs of the Spirit. 



Thy Soul and thou, despatched, would bless 

Its fearful penury with wealth; 
For 'tis not yet thy Soul, nor thee, 

Sits so unknown — so long — so long — 
Thou hast the rhyme, the words, the key, 

But O, thou hast not yet the Song! 



Into the land of Spirit I 

Looked as a guest swiftly sent by; 

There, radiantly pure, and clad 

So beautifully nothing had 

Much more of shining vesture — so 

Unveiled and tearless, bright, aglow 

With happiness and long content, 

I saw this Being, who had spent 

Ages and ages burdened — bent. 



So7tgs of the Spirit 37 



But as I looked I could not tell 
Which creature fashioned the spell — 
The heart of Man — or Woman's heart — 
Or Spirit — healed with perfect art; 
I knew, and only knew, arise 
This Being, and my daring eyes 
Looked swiftly on the thing within 
Myself — and saw this Being's kin. 
Which was the vision, and the name 
Soundless so long, so long in shame 
Sunken beneath its altar-flame. 



VIII. 

TN unexpected mysteries 

A Spirit's shape engendered is: 
Impalpable and active — real, 
Powerful, keen, wearing the seal 
And fashion of a subtle thing. 
Fearless, ennobled, excelling. 



As one uncomprehended, known 
But hastily, as something grown 
Amiss unto the eyes of men. 
It shows its visage shortly, then 
Turns from the staring gaze and is 
Again with obscure mysteries. 



Songs of the Spirit. 39 



But in that mystery there is light; 
Lost unto men upon the sight 
Of this, that Spirit, rapidly 
Dissolves its own obscurity: 
It comes again, and throws afar 
Splendor of which its sources are. 



Lone, speechless, fearless, undisguised, 
It passes many a path despised. 
And many a question, many a blame. 
Calls out in scorn this Spirit's name: 
Thou art not one of us: — so says 
The caviller consciously in phrase 
Of rectitude — wherefore arise 
These beings in their strange disguise, 
And singular evidence that we 
Are not sufficed in harmony ? 



40 Songs of the Spirit. 



But the bright Spirit, passing by, 
Leaves light of something splendidly 
Settled on surfaces that know 
More quickly to catch up the glow 
Of beauteousness; but after him. 
When what he left is dull and dim, 
As vision lasts, accusers stand. 
Lifting each long, reviling hand. 
Deriding o'er the darkening land. 
But they, they cavil and forget: 
But he returns: more fearful yet 
Out of unspoken sources fly 
The records of his radiancy. 



So fearfully increases light 

Of him, so terrible the sight 

Of one who stands, transparently 

And dumb, beside that you may see 



Songs of the Spirit. 41 



The compass of his mysteries, 
And, seeing, may partake of these, 
That some who cavil, silently, 
Little by little, in degree, 
Unwrap their garments and enclose 
Mystery that from this Spirit goes. 



But he is heedless, as one blest 

With instinct of a far-off hest; 

And, having patiently disposed 

His trappings, where there shines enclosed 

An increase ever marvelous, 

Passes as one who says: — And thus 

Shall ye who take persistent give. 

Also, the increase ye shall live. 



IX. 

'THERE was something— a substance— an evident 
thing — 

And it rose and enveloped myself, and it grew 
Apparent and passive, but so encircling 

Myself it was heedless, and never it knew 
Of my presence, but the light of its wonderful grace 

Was astir for another than I, and it sent 
Exquisite enquiry flashed out of its face — 

But tranquility out with the earnestness went. 



Songs of the Spirit. 43 



I stayed, as remaining an onlooker may 

Who is silent and stricken, whose eyes are a-fast 
Upon things in a distant and uncertain way, 

As one in the sight of a vision that passed: 
But the thing that I saw seemed nowise to me 

Like to unsettled shades, in their terror arrayed, 
But the manner of all had most benignantly 

Passed into the sense of my Soul as I stayed. 



That the quivering cadence of light, as it moved, 

Sought out of the subtleness whereof it came — 
Down in its excessively, tenderest loved 

Recesses — a consciously tremulous flame; 
And the glory of Earth, and the tinge of the air. 

Partook of an exquisite temper untold 
As the outstretching Spirit expanded in rare 

Distinctions of beauty, its delight to unfold. 



44 Songs of the Spirit. 



For I saw in the mystical Spirit a thing 

Disbelieving; a terrible cry of the earth 
Was shrunken, and silent, and disappearing, 

Emerging, existed the delicate birth 
And the multiplied self of a Spirit, anew 

Set trembling in certainty out on the gaze 
Of the passionate cycles of horror that grew 

Abundantly over its birth in the days. 



And I listened: what glories of speech would betray 

In an adequate rapture release and express 
Most profoundly their knowledge, what a sanctified 
way 
Was sufficed to the need of their loveliness: 
But they tarried; and I saw that they knew and 
displayed 
Most totally out of their consciousness all 



Songs of the Spirit. 45 



Of their secretest wishes, that stood out undismayed 
In a silence that spake with no Hps and no call. 



And this was their beauty of speaking, and this 

Was their mystified manner, and flashes that 
were 
Unto them an expression, the identical bliss 

Of disclosure accomplished; discarding the near 
And the nearest design of emotion, to be 

Expressive themselves, as expression arose. 
And, released from their ardent identity. 

Each Spirit of one did the other disclose. 



X. 

T SAW peculiar excellence 

Of sweetness, and a piercing light 
Of power, burning with intense 
Illumination and delight. 

Within the lustre there was hue 
Of delicate, almost odorous 

Admixture of some colors, through 
The glow displaying marvelous. 



Songs of the Spirit. 47 



There was not any other where 
Such thing in such exact display, 

This flame that lived leaped in an air 
Had hither swept some distant way. 

It was, indeed, arriving so. 
With some peculiar color sent, 

Fanned of its individual glow, 
And mixed with other airs content. 

But there was still shining discourse, 

And an unshaken origin 
Vividly flying with the force 

Of all its substance blended in. 

Which curious, because estranged 
From much that easily was placed 

About, with wonderfully arranged 
Circuits, exquisite, happy, chaste. 



48 Songs of the Spirit. 



Perplexing was the permanent 
Remaining and abiding so 

Of still and still this wind, that went 
Still something as it used to go. 

A Spirit, — for Spirits arise — 
Guardians administering aid, 

Intelligence sent from his eyes 
Enlightening, and smiling said: 

This deathless, undisturbed flame, 
This wind that beareth all apart 

Itself, this is the throb that came 
Unto the Spirit in the Heart. 



XL 



AX/ RAPPED in a veil of darkness, and distressed, 
Stands the imprisoned Soul, with anxious eyes 
Set to the coming of a long impressed, 
Expected breakage in the distant skies. 

There is no guidance to the Spirit's feet. 
No beacon on the Spirit's eyes ablaze, 

That breaks not farther than the farthest fleet. 
Illumined wandering of mortal rays. 



50 So7igs of the Spirit. 



So is the Soul in silence and oppressed, 
Sadly disclaiming with its tearful eyes 

Each avenue of passage, till expressed 
Out on the night th' instinctive glory lies. 

Little by little, as the glimmerings go 
Faintly around the far-off horizon. 

The sad eyes of the Soul steady, and grow 
Fixed at the light dilating passing on. 

Forgetful, with its silent habitude 
Of waiting yet more passionately still. 

The figure of the Spirit stands as stood 
The long and gentle patience of its will. 

Flashing, reviving, radiant and keen 
Spreads the expanding glow, and separate 

Extends a glorious pathway out between 
The watchful Soul and that angelic state. 



Songs of the Spirit. 51 



Immediately, with peaceful passage out, 
Glides the illumined traveler, and goes 

Pacing past anxious ways that oft about 
Its walk of light their avenues disclose. 

Wide in that country of celestial light 
The Spirit's eyes continue, and acquire 

More and more fervently the strong delight 
And brilliant conquest of its sacred fire. 

Thence to the boundary coming, and entrance 
Obtaining where its glorious ways invite. 

The Spirit trembles in the sweet advance 
And gentlest presence of celestial sight. 

Distinct, and differing in tenderness 
From every glory and from every shade, 

Through all, in a majestic holiness. 
He enters, unmistakably arrayed. 



52 Songs of the Spirit. 



Therein the passion of the Spirit sends 
Its outcry, and, its heart delivering, 

Stands in the sweet discernment that extends 
Forever from The Light administering. 



PARADISE: PART FIRST. 

C HINE out, O struggling Soul, and break 

Enlightened in the sounds that clung 
To silence; loosen time and take 
The burden of thy mj^stic tongue. 

Thine are the eyes uplift and see 

The fashion of exquisite grace 
That clothed the Earth, and anciently 

Settled with peace her sacred place. 



54 Songs of the Spirit. 



Thou seest from a distant height 
Of journey, and the fervid rays 

Of an unconquerable delight 
Deliver up the ancient days. 

For these were days of Time, and still 
Unseen abide as time descends 

Slowly from out the gates that will 
Illumine while he re-ascends. 

Unseen in time have vacant gone 
The beautiful and brilliant hours 

That closed in darkness, as in storm 
Dismay bewildering falls on flowers. 

But every blossom where delight 
Had passage dyes the silence still, 

The steady Spirit-eyes in sight 
Of blessedness with passion fill. 



Songs of the Spirit. 55 



Passion of purity, and see 
The fashion of a sight that is 

Not other than the Soul shall be 
Uplifted in its mysteries. 

For beautiful, O beautiful 

Abide the answers of desire 
That gazes fast and terrible 

Into the living, sacred fire. 

And beautiful, O beautiful 

Fulfil the far anxieties, 
So perfect in that mystical 

Delight the Spirit knows and sees. 

Where rest these pictures in their peace ? 

Shall they discover in a long 
Immensity and flight; are these 

Signs that are far, and far belong ? 



56 Songs of the Spirit 



Nay, to the radiant Earth they still 
Unfold, and stretch in silence wide 

About her aspect, wrapped until 
The Soul shall draw their veil aside. 

For over them the Soul hath cast 
Her sweet, delighted orbs, and stood 

With them in kindred, in the Past 
That bore her in its plentitude. 

The Soul remains, and still abide 
These harvests for her faithful eyes, 

The breath that calls them to her side 
Is the low burden of her sighs. 

And she, that sufferer divine, 
Reviewing with astonished sight 

Her far-off memories that shine 
Unquenchably in their delight, — 



Songs of the Spirit. 57 



Attaining, gazing, holding still 
The deathless secret of her own, 

With seeds of blessedness shall fill 
Furrows her frailty hath sown. 

O blind, so blind: oblivion fell, 
Blotting her beauty and her peace, 

She was a child of simple spell. 
And saw her simple myster}^ cease. 

She rose and knew but beauty; saw 
But sweetness, and the splendid ray 

That glides out of the single law 
Of loveliness attained alway. 

The loveliness remains and goes 

Idly and uninhabited. 
So close to the sad Soul that knows 

So little of the ways it led. 



58 Songs of tJie Spirit. 



For she, the blighted Spirit, takes 
Slowly possessions in her hands 

She newly sees, and vacant makes 
Their number over as she stands. 

Touched with another sense and shape 
She hesitates in weakness, knows 

The sad, sad secret that could slake 
One sorrow in a thousand woes. 

And so she journeyed, sad, disguised, 
Empty of innocence, and fast 

Forgetting glory that, despised, 
Disdained, dissembled, faded — past. 

For this, her blessed Paradise, 
That filled her Spirit and her scene. 

Lay in the light that filled her eyes. 
She saw delight, nothing between. 



Songs of the Spirit. 59 



And she was fashioned in her cell 
Of innocence and sanctity, 

As one wrapped in a secret spell 
Of absolute and sure beauty. 

She was the star that sent its ray 
Without itself, and blazed abroad, 

Lighting with brilliancy alway 
Whatever passages she trod. 

And lost, O lost: she sees and knows 
Her sorrowful encasement, where 

Feebly her shadowed aspect glows, 
And hesitates in darkened air. 

And she is prisoner; encased 
In the sad confines that arose 

Around her eyes; abroad the waste 
For passage, and within her woes. 



6o Songs of the Spirit. 



She knew a vision that dispelled 

With sorrowful invective all 
Her fearlessness, and built and celled 

Her dungeon and its massive wall. 

Thereby in ages hath she wrought 
Distressed, standing betimes to see 

On the far outlook something sought 
By bitterness but certainty. 

Darkened, o'erburdened, blighted, spent, 

Lo, inextinguishable alway 
The glorious brilliancy that went 

Within herself that sombre way. 

She kept, sweet Spirit, kept a-stir 

Her memory in slumbering, 
And lo, in ages back to her 

Revives its ancient cherishing. 



Songs of the Spirit. 6i 



'Twas long, so long. There stands to touch 
Her eyelids with impassioned balm 

New Knowledge — strong, bestowing much 
Intensest ecstac}^ and calm. 

Outward — onward: She pauses slow- 
Over the wastage that extends 

Out of the secrets she did know 
And listens where their echo sends 

A tremulous, devoted tone, 

And where with bright impatience flies 
Radiance, in passages that own 

Their freedom to her fervid eyes. 

For her unconquerable gaze, 

Profoundly darkened in the sight 

Of hidden things, reviving plays 
Exquisitely with ancient light. 



62 Songs of the Spirit. 



Regaining transport, vivified 
Flashes her longing, and her eye 

Exulting plays around the wide 
Domain of vanished misery. 

Released, unbound, the prisoner goes 
Appareled with majestic mien 

Of one forgetful in her woes, 
Impassioned in a glittering scene 

That soothes her; penetrating far 
In aisles of memory to raise 

Reviving ecstacies that were 
Companions of her happy ways. 

O Spirit, sweet, brilliant, secure. 
Regarding with thy clear-eyed glance 

Things of the Soul, deathlessly pure 
Thou passest in thy high advance: 



Songs of the Spirit. 63 



Whereon thy fearless eyes are set 
Hath power to draw thee, and endue 

Unconquerably the things that yet 
Remain thy glories to pursue. 

Endowed, illumined, living, strong, 
Unswervingly the Spirit makes 

Its passage, gathering what belong 
Of memory and hope, it takes 

Into its heart its story old 
Of innocence, and sees arise 

Again the legend's lettered gold 
Outspread upon a new sun-rise. 

O beautiful, and widely bright 
Spreadeth the glory, with its hue 

Enlivened in the straining sight 
Of those sad eyes that only knew 



64 So?igs of the Spirit 



A darkness as they longed and gazed, 
With passion fearfully intent, 

And a wild heart, distressed, amazed, 
And agony exhausted, spent. 

O Love, thou tenderly restored. 
Expanded, beautified, endowed 

With powers for thy sweet reward, 
And all thy shining Soul allowed: — 

O Love exempted, pass and see 
Thyself a portion of the sight 

Glowing with rapid brilliancy. 
And glittering in fond delight. 

Thou art, O Heart, with Spirit made 
One of the sweet, assembled throng, 

And what thou seest, swiftly displayed, 
Is but the brightness shall belong 



Songs of the Spirit. 65 



Within thee, for thou art indeed 
Mysteriously wrapped in thy Soul 

Again, and ever round thee speed 
Thy lightning joys, and round thee roll 

Great clouds of color and content, 
Bearing their mighty wings a-wide, 

Ever with newness resplendent, 
And ever in fresh glory dyed. 

For there embosomed shalt thou see 
Deeper and deeper thy delight, 

With colors kept a-wait for thee 
To penetrate in keener sight: — 

And there are incandescent things 
Of exquisite, ennobling shade, 

And there a wondrous virtue flings 
Abroad its powers, richly displayed. 



66 So7igs of the Spwit, 



For these lie out again for thee, 
Stronger, O Spirit, that thou hast 

Re-entered on the heraldry 
Of thine ancestral, happy past. 

Thy past re-pictured in thy gaze 
Burningly set on yonder high 

Exulting prospect, that displays 
Grandly an ancient panoply. 

Thou seest in thine heritage 
Of being such intensified 

Expanse, and thitherward engage 
Thy longings ever magnified — 

And endless harmonies of light. 
That are devout, serenely pure, 

With them, O Spirit, in thy right 
Of company thou shalt endure. 



Songs of the Spirit. 67 



Look out, O Spirit, from thy place 
Of passage with attentive eyes, 

Thou seest thy surprising grace 
Of completeness, and canst devise 

Abundantly thy beauty spread 
With visual perfectness, and fair 

Extensive happiness instead 
Of all thine old, abundant care. 

Within thee blossom and unfold 

Thy gorgeous consciousness, and hope 

To gather still thy fruits of old, 
And see again their richness ope. 

O Soul, there fervidly arise 
Translations of thy purest sense. 

Thousand and thousand brilliancies 
Succeed with eagerness intense: — 



68 So7igs of the Spirit, 



For they shall be unto thyself 
Instinctive, and their majesties, 

With all their destiny of wealth, 
Adapted to thy sacred eyes. 

Thou hast descended, Spirit, far 

On downward wings, and didst alight 

On a changed Earth, as on a star 
Distempered of its happy light: — 

But now thou standest to upraise 
Thy pinions and float out afar, 

Like to a golden cloud that plays 
Within itself, and yields a star. 

For thou shalt glitter and display 
All the unclouded Soul that kept 

Its secret undisturbed away 
While in the night thy vision slept. 



Songs of the Spirit. 69 



In darkness closeted, O Soul, 
Thou wert a-wonder how, displaced, 

Should pass thy heart's imprinted dole, 
And bloom thy loveliness defaced: — 

But thou art touched in transport fine 
And blossomest where'er thou art. 

Clothed with repeated splendors shine 
Thy Soul and thy terrestrial part. 

Thou art so passionately stirred 
Thou standest with thy wavering feet 

Upstarting, as of one who heard 
Within thee speech and Spirit meet. 

Thou seest as a part, afar. 
Sublimely weak, but still endued 

With sweet, perceptive things that are 
Of those that all thyself include. 



70 Songs of the Spirit. 



Because thou hast impassioned wept 
Amid thy weakness, and bewailed 

All the disordered days that kept 
Their closeness in thy path assailed ;- 

Because the trembling of thy feet 
Went wearily, and sorrow hung 

So low thy roadway could not meet 
Delight, but to the darkness clung; — 

Because of this, O Soul a-wide 
With virtue, knowledge, and arrayed 

In wisdom, thou hast joy denied 
So long — and now so long displayed. 

Thou hast attained the perfect sight 
And searching of thy Spirit eyes, 

Thou read' St thy shining laws aright, 
And failure from thy vision flies. 



Songs of the Spirit 7i 



For thou art portion, seeing writ 
Thyself a letter in the theme, 

Await for glory, watching it, 
Thou art transfigured in its gleam. 

O Paradise! O Love dismayed ! 

Return, thou Wanderer divine, 
No more thy gentle orbs afraid 

Of tears are full, but brightly shine. 

Thy long, unconquerable spell. 
In sorrow and to grief assigned, 

Is gone, thy Soul goes out the well 
Besought deliverance, consigned 

Unto the beauty of its own 

Expanding, and thy yielding heart, 
O Love, with all its treasures known 

Follows but only what thou art. 



72 Songs of the Spirit 



Descending is a Spirit come 
Touching thy consciousness anew; 

This Holy Traveler from the dome 
Of Heaven administering flew: — 

He telleth of a new increase 
Grown for thy vision, and displayed 

O'er thy horizon, and release 
Of longing for thy succor made. 

Thou art not prisoner, detained 
In terrible distress of speech, 

Already freedom's wings have gained 
For thee their swift, encircling reach. 

Already what thou hast not been, 
With all thy wings unconscious furled, 

The sweet eyes of thy Soul have seen 
Ascending o'er her darkened world. 



Songs of the Spirit. 73 



Thou hast walked separate, alone, 
Impossibly beseeching rest. 

But now thy tender heart hath gone 
But as an imaging impressed 

On what she seeketh, and in air 
Sublimely tempered for thy ways, 

Already now, O creature fair, 
Is Joy delivered of thy days. 

In tears, unhidden tears, delayed. 
Thine only and unmeasured end 

Rested within a Voice that said 
Its messages a-flight to send 

Their radiating knowledge far; 

Within the message art thou found, 
O Love, a listener on the star 

Of Earth, and in the mighty round 
J 



74 



So7igs of the Spirit. 



Of worlds aside art furnished 

With being for thy sweet increase, 

Because thou art absolved, instead 
Of wanting thou abid'st in peace. 

O Spirit, breaking Time and Place, 
What is the passage unto thee ? 

Thou fliest through intensest Space, 
And penetrating rhapsody 

Of an hereafter breaks aglow 
In thine admission on the star 

Whose longings infinitely go 

Beyond the boundaries where they are. 

Spirit in Spirit shall abide: 

Earth floats in her ancestral sea 

Of Spirit, and that viewless tide 
Bears on her courses hastily. 



Songs of the Spirit. 75 



Fly out, O Love, and stretch thy wing 
Earliest above th' imprinted wave, 

Where hues of Heaven descend and cling 
On Earth, entrancing what she gave. 

There, living on that vivid sea, 
Love, like an Angel, fans the air 

With pinions that have swept the free 
Regions remote from her despair. 

She is a-new — doubly upborne, 
Thou hast not seen her in the days 

Of desperate Earth, no face hath worn 
Her look where visage doubly plays. 

Go down, go down unto the shore. 
Look out upon the lightening sea, 

Its placid offering before 
Hath spread those treasures silently. 



76 Songs of the Spwit. 



Long, long ago, thyself hath stood 

Idly debating on the shore, 
What shadow now shall e'er intrude 

On light those ancient waves restore ? 

Thine is the sea, the waves belong 
To the full Earth, and unto thee 

Its breast is open; press the strong 
Throb of its bosom willingly. 

Held to its heaving heart the Soul 
Draws nurture; see! divinely free 

Over that endless aspect roll 
Magnificence — Eternity. 



PARADISE: PART SECOND. 

'T'O be a part of Beauty, and sustained 

Within its halo, and to recognize 
Divinely all its glory as regained 

In the quick vision of uncovered eyes: — 

To know the sunken and disastrous, slow 
Beclouded burden of my perilous way 

Drew wide its darkness, and its overflow, 
Because that sightless orbs would still betray: 



78 Songs of the Sph'it. 



To pierce with passionate ardor, and design 
Of seizing, all the heavy shade that lies 

Enveloping, and with the sight combine 
That ever hither comes, is Paradise. 

Out of The Spirit that portrays shall grow 
Unanswerably its fashion on the eyes 

Of gazing men — shaping their glances, show 
Its glimpses, and thy gleams, O Paradise. 

Not in forgotten outlook, with unknown 
Beatitude designed in formless grace, 

O Paradise, thy glories are our own 
With all their knowledge breathing on thy face! 

Thy countenance with wisdom, and divine 

Adoption of thy secret purpose, is 
Displayed unhidden as thy movements shine 

Perfect in consciousness — perfect in bliss. 



Sdngs of the Spirit. 79 



Thine is the wide, mysterious power that drives 
Darkness to nothingness, and distance lies 

Bound up with insight in the light that lives 
Forever where the Soul accepted flies. 

O Paradise, thy breathing stirs the air 
Floating with golden clouds of Earth on high 

Entablatures of glor>^, and their fair 
Exquisiteness is in thy masonry. 

Thine are the crimsoned harbingers that burst 
From out their secret sources to proclaim 

Nativity of beauty, and dispersed 
Round their horizons wide assert thy name. 

Thy passionate appearance of delight 
Abides in waiting, till the eyes shall glow 

In answering earnestness, until the light 
Of Spirits pierce their prisons' overthrow. 



8o Songs of the Spirit. 



Thou stretchest in thy country's bounds apace 
Over the shores of Earth, and sinking seas 

Of many a desolately tortured place 
Gleam in the glor>' of thy soft increase. 

Thou waitest with thy splendid fringes cast 
In finest radiance o'er the wind and cloud, 

And O, with what intensest brilliance last 

The visions where thy glittering flashes crowd. 

Thou art not, Paradise, removed and far, 
Remotely distant from our anguished eyes, 

See there, O Spirit, these expressions are 
Drawn from her heavenly and fair supplies. 

There is her beauty, and her tender sense 
Of lovingness, and her still hands arrayed 

In succor linger, longing to dispense 
Over the Soul her comforts there delayed. 



Songs of the Spirit. 8i 



Thou art, O Paradise, a Radiance sent, 
Divinely purposed and divinely clad, 

On thine attirement hath The Spirit spent 
Its making, and perfection makes thee glad. 

Sent from the judgment of The Spirit's sense 
Thou walkest, and thy gentle, patient face, 

With all its beauty, hath that impress whence 
The Spirit looketh from its secret place. 

Thou art defended, for thou wearest guise 
Of Immortality, and hath bestowed 

All the impregnable unknown that lies 
In Spirit whence thy sacred being flowed. 

But thou, so beautiful, aside, unknown, 
Unto the thousand, thousand eyes afar, 

Dwelt in thy mystery; thine aspect shone 
On Earth but beauty on a whirling star. 



82 Songs of the Spirit. 



Thy Spirit, and thy panoply displayed, 
Hung but as curtains on a moving air, 

Lost palpitations of thy being made 
No movement in the veins of grief and care. 

Thou wert a-weary, anxious and oppressed, 
In all thy nearness and in all thy grace, 

Lo, to the lifting of thine hands distressed 
Cometh the speech of His exquisite Face. 

Quick, wonderful, thy bursting joy divine. 
The fleetness of thy footsteps, and the sight 

Of thine uncovered mysteries, that shine 
Outstarting in their glorifying flight. 

In those unceasing steps sustained and led, 
Walking appareled of thy fair array, 

Lo, in all darkness still thy name is said. 
And thou, thou standest still in every way! 



Songs of the Spirit. 85 



Thou art, O Paradise, set in the ways 
Of listening Earth, and ever in her eyes 

Thy face with its angehc ardor plays. 
And fast before thy beauty doubting flies. 

Thou shalt thine own upgathering bestow, 
And go and leave thy precious gifts outcast; 

The rapid splendors of thy garments glow 
On every outlook where thy feet have passed. 

And so forever, with increasing shade 

Of vivifying certainty, and gleam 
Of thy supplanting glory, intermade 

In every outburst of thy changeless theme. 

Beauty and purity, and long, profound. 
All passionate adornment of the Soul 

In each exquisite symbol, an the sound 
Of the long anthems that within thee roll 



84 So7tgs of the Spirit. 



With silent music upon silent ears, 

And, more than any, the great joy that takes 
The ancient fonts of all unfinished tears 

And of their waters crystal grandeur makes. 

Descend, descend, O walk in changeless Day! 

My Paradise thou art a child of Light! 
I hide me in thy visions, and alway 

Watch out within their fairness time and night 

There is no dark shall dim thee, and no toil 
Found in an Earth of furrows, and no care 

From any cloud descending taught to soil 
The virtue of thine ever-living air. 

Within thy joys I see, and feel the eyes 
Sink to a source of beauty, and distil 

Themselves within a sweetness, and arise 
Part of thy purpose and thy gentle will. 



Songs of the Sph'it. 85 



Part of thy undulations and unknown 
Expressions yielding up their endless rest, 

Part of an equal, fervent Life, that sown 
With answer sows thee equal in the quest. 

I can not compass and arrange thy way, 
I go a-journeying, bidden into thee, 

I step upon thy roads, whose gates betray 
But glimpses of magnificent entry. 

Can I, exclaiming in a wondering phrase 

Of jubilation at thy earliest sight, 
Can I surround thy glory, and appraise 

Thine outposts glittering in extended light ? 

O Paradise, I know not whither go 
Thy messengers of glory, and no more 

What paths outflying shall my Spirit flow 
On clouds of thine, that rest by mortal shore. 



86 Songs of the Spirit 



Receive me, with my outstretched wings I fly 
Gently, O gently into thy domain, 

Bear up, O bear my wavering pinions, I 
Tnist all my being to thy sheltering name. 

I go unto thy country and thy Lord, 
None knowing but the Sentinel who stands 

At the receiving Gate, can I afford 
To claim the compass of thy blessed lands ? 

Lo, in the circuit of those distant wings 
I fly where thou shalt bear me, and divine 

Whate'er thou tellest, and my passion sings 
What words are spoken in thyself to mine. 

Thou and thy Lord, and I inhabitant, 
O Paradise, I know enough to be 

Smitten to heart with one exulting want, 
Blazing within my Spirit's alchemy. 



Songs of the Spirit. 87 



The want, the need, the passionate desire, 
The yearning, bursting pain of heart and Soul, 

In thy pellucid atmosphere, and higher, 
Beyond thee, where thy wishes gently roll, 

To be a Vision of ascending things. 

And, them receiving, gaze until my eyes 

Draw my Soul onward, and my Spirit flings 
Itself where thou wast nurtured. Paradise. 



SONG OF THE SPIRIT. 

T AM a Spirit, floating on, 

My danger and my darkness done: 
Into an open Sea I glide. 
Within the cloud, within its tide: 
Round the Sea's rim light clouds hang low, 
And round its circuit drifting go. 
I can not stand upon the shore 
To traverse that wide water o'er: 
However desperately my eyes 



Songs of the Spirit. 



Are anxious of the light that lies 
Unbosomed on the earnest deep, 
I can not have it while I keep 
My passion pacing out the land, 
And so I leave thee, helpless strand. 
I glide and glide: O the sweet view 
Of all I knew not and I knew: 
No more with slow, untempered wings 
My Spirit lingers, but it flings 
Itself where music waiting sings. 
Ring out, O Voices compassed well. 
Ring out thy conquering tones and tell 
My Spirit in thy Spirits' tongue 
What joys I see and thou hast sung. 
To see! to see! who would not wait 
Leagues of a long-drawn sun, and late 
By every mom and every shore 
To see at last, and wait no more! 



90 Songs of the Spirit. 



My Soul, with thine imploring eyes 
Made in the need of Paradise, 
Delay, and gathering hold the rays 
Burnishing ever}' prospect's ways, 
Slowly within thy fluttering breast, 
O longing heart look out and rest! 
There is no need that thou shouldst fly 
In eager, wild rapidit\'; 
There is no need that thou shouldst keep 
Watch stealthily as sorrows creep, 
Without a change and without haste, 
Out of their caverns and their waste 
And stop where thou art helpless placed. 
Sorrow is heavy, and must roll 
Below thy footsteps, O my Soul: 
At last thou art, thou radiant thing. 
End of thy passion's desiring, 
Delivered like a wild being, 



So}i^s of the Spirit. 



Rapidly whirling and circling, 

Breaks from the angered cords and fast 

Darts out its tether and its past 

Far out, far out, beating to free 

Thy flight, thou struggled desperately: 

Swiftly the rushing of thy wings 

Sprang outward, and thy freedom clings, 

Ever rejoicing, sailing through 

The splendid world it struggled to. 

Sorrow was in thy Soul that hung 

Compelled on the dark Orb that clung 

Mysteriously upon its road 

Of bondage, with mysterious load. 

Into the World's sad days of shade 

Thy passionate appealing made 

Its glimmer, and, unstartled, flew 

On rapid wng thy Spirit through. 

Stand still: let the slow mists arise 



91 



92 Songs of the Spirit. 



Of sweetness in entroubled eyes — 
This is the sun of Paradise. 
There is not one, a cloud of care 
Hung in the heavens anywhere: 
There is not one, no loveliness 
That thou hast longed for in distress, 
Not clinging, with its light caress, 
O'er anything it would impress. 
Many the cold, unbelieving eye 
Crossed in its storm-cloud on thy sky; 
Many the low and wintry word 
Muffled thy human heart that heard; 
Many, O Soul, stood changeless by 
Thine issuing: when thou shouldst die 
Innumerable stretch out to close 
Thy vision in its dark repose. 
O Spirit, thou hast fled a-blaze 
Far from the lands their darkness stays: 



Songs of the Spirit 93 



Thou wert indeed of Time, but why 
Should Time condemn thee vacantly ? 
Into its sun of circling days 
Thou waked and slept: alternate rays 
Flashed on thy Soul as lightning plays, 
And darkness robs the quivering gaze. 
But now thou art disrobed of night 
And standest flashing in the light: 
No more the heavy circle clings. 
Of vesture, on thy Soul that flings 
Her desperate beams, anxiously wild 
To burst or blind her guards beguiled. 
At last! O Spirit what a wing 
Sails outward as thy circles swing 
Their heavenly courses, and alight 
On stops of glittering, sacred sight! 
Thou couldst not gather, couldst not sing 
This passion of thy surrounding; 



94 Songs of the Spirit 



Thou couldst not loosen in the world 
These instant wings, wafting unfurled; 
How couldst thou speak sufficiently ? 
O this the being, being free — 
Released from hope in radiancy! 
Sail on: there is no sea of storm, 
No tempest rock, to strike thy form: 
Long in its casemate burned aglow 
Thy Spirit, but its vanished flow 
Shines out on that tremendous sea 
That rolls in light continually. 
Thou art not one of those who stand 
Spectred and faintly on the strand: 
On its wild edge of long distress 
Their shades diminish and grow less, 
And fail and sink to nothingness. 
Their gleams burn faintly as the years 
Of cold delay, and doubt, and tears 



Songs of the Spirit. 95 



Pass by them, heaping up the brine 
Of all their wretchedness and thine. 
My Spirit, when that burning Sea 
Broke on thyself mysteriously, 
Mysteriously beyond the gloom 
Of Earth a-chill within her tomb, 
Deep with thy feet into the flow 
Of its long currents didst thou go, 
Standing and wavering, waiting there 
Till they should rise, and outward bear 
Thy Spirit, and thy Spirit's eyes 
Gleamed as the mighty breakers rise. 
Swept outward, with the winds upraised 
Thou art borne onward, pleased, amazed: 
Tell me, my Spirit, why, O why 
Can such as thou strangely deny 
The long and luminous things that lie 
Stretched out to their obscurity ? 



96 So7igs of the Spirit. 



Wert thou of different life from these, 
How came thy wonderful increase ? 
Why have they pain and thou hast peace ? 
There is not one in all the shore, 
Wrapped in the waves' incessant roar, 
Who hath not in his bitter eyes, 
Pain, and her silent, stifled cries. 
And yet, O Soul, if they should glide 
An instant on this brilliant tide, 
Be lifted, with its winds supplied, 
And see one vision of its wide 
Revolving glow and gorgeousness. 
There is not one could know distress. 
It is impossible to be 
Freighted with pain upon this Sea: 
Some things belong to some, and there 
Are things not nurtured everywhere — 
Have suns a night to dream despair? 



Songs of the Spirit. 97 



So, whoso peopleth this Sea 

Is perfectly and placidly 

Fixed into Joy's identity. 

Should the dark Spirit stand to care 

In questioning, to be aware 

There is not pain nor sorrow there ? 

Have pain and shadow grown so dear 

The Soul should separate not for fear. 

Out of what losing ? Or abide 

With them ? Poor Spirits — chained, belied. 

And yet they stand: they can not see 

The cloudless air, they will not be 

Drawn from the shores of misery. 

Dash on, eternal, dreadful Sea, 

Break on thy bounds unceasingly: 

There is upon thy changeless roar 

An endless strain; increasing pour 

Thy billows on the sinking shore. 



98 Songs of the Spirit. 



Thou art the Monarch, and shalt ride 
Deep with the Earth within thy tide: 

how thy mighty waves shall strain 
The banks of Time, and grain by grain 
Draw what thou keepest for thy gain. 
Where are thy depths ? O Sea, below 
Thy bosom is a fearful flow, 

And dreadfully thy soundings go. 

1 am a Spirit, floating on, 

My danger and my darkness done: 
Into an open Sea I glide. 
Within its cloud, within its tide: 
O yielding Sea, O air of balm, 
Intensest peace, impassioned calm, 
How can my Spirit quivering be 
Replete with all thine ecstacy ? 
Long, long ago I yearned to be 
Out — sailing somewhere on this Sea: 



Songs of the Spirit. 99 



I yearned, and dreamed, and felt arise 

A new desire, a swift surmise, 

As one in many mysteries: 

I dreamed, and saw, and moved upon 

Thy bosom, not myself alone. 

Lo, in the circuit of this Sea 

I am the thing dreamed anciently: 

Whatever else sails in the sun. 

Mysteriously, of this kingdom, 

I am the being my Soul said 

Could be, I am this being made. 

Who standeth sinking in the shore 

Of a dead Earth, and cries, "No more, 

No Soul can rise, no being be 

Not known of us, we can not see! " 

Say on, say on: while I fulfil 

My heart, my purpose, and my will. 

Thy work is doubt, and doubting still. 



loo Songs of the Spirit. 



Another speech, another tongue 
Flames in my Soul; whate'er I sung 
Of its vibrations all was rung. 
It is not possible to stay 
This flaming speech, that far away 
Hears loud what it can faintly say. 
Out of the sounding echo goes 
This leaping flame, who can oppose 
Its passage, who its virtue knows ? 

happy feet that fled the shore, 
The land is dim, if the waves pour 
Their wrath, and all their steady roar, 

1 can not hear nor see them more. 



